How can I differentiate between SHDocVw.InternetExplorer and SHDocVw.WebBrowser_v1 with VB.NET?

Question

I have a WPF application with a function to loop through open IE web pages (yes, we're still using IE) and scrape data from the HTML. Occasionally, users will get an error indicating "Public member 'name' on type WebBrowswer_V1 not found" followed by "Unable to cast COM object of type 'System._ComObject' to interface type 'mshtml.HTMLDocument'..." I am not finding too many answers as to why IE windows will occasionally be seen as "WebBrowser_V1" rather than "Internet Explorer". At this time, the only solution we've found is to shut down all instances of IE and restart the application, and, when that doesn't work, reboot the PC. I have been unable to replicate the error in debug. Can anyone assist in providing insight into how I might resolve this issue?

    Public Function loadKeyIDs() As DataTable
    Dim dt As New DataTable
    dt.Columns.Add("keyid")
    dt.Columns.Add("clientAcct")
    dt.Columns.Add("clientName")
    dt.Columns.Add("legalEntity")
    dt.Columns.Add("vendor")
    Dim shellWins As New SHDocVw.ShellWindows
    Dim explorer As SHDocVw.InternetExplorer
    Try
        For Each explorer In shellWins
            If isEformTracking(explorer) Then
                Dim x As HTMLDocument = explorer.Document
                Dim cm As HTMLInputElement = x.getElementsByName("grkeyid")(0)
                If Not cm Is Nothing Then
                    Dim y As eFormValues = collectClientInfoAbbreviated(x)
                    dt.Rows.Add(y.keyid, y.clientAcct, y.clientName, y.legalEntity, y.vendor)
                End If
            End If
        Next
    Catch ex As Exception
        Dim st As New StackTrace(True)
        st = New StackTrace(ex, True)
        Dim msg As String = ex.Message + " {Stack trace: " + st.GetFrame(0).GetFileLineNumber().ToString + "}"
        MsgBox("An error has occurred when trying to collect open eForm Tracking pages. Please relay this information to support: " & msg)
    Finally
        shellWins = Nothing
        explorer = Nothing
    End Try
    Return dt
End Function

Public Function isEformTracking(ie As SHDocVw.InternetExplorer) As Boolean
    Dim ret As Boolean = False
    If ie.Application.name <> "Internet Explorer" Then
        ret = False
        GoTo ExitSub
    End If

    If ie.ReadyState <> 4 Then
        ret = False
        GoTo ExitSub
    End If

    If Not ie.LocationURL Like "*eforms*" And Not ie.LocationURL Like "*qdcws0726*" And Not ie.LocationURL Like "*qdcws0738*" Then
        ret = False
        GoTo ExitSub
    End If

    If ie.LocationURL Like "*eforms*" Or ie.LocationURL Like "*qdcws0726*" And Not ie.LocationURL Like "*qdcws0738*" Then
        If ie.LocationURL Like "*sales*" Then
            ret = False
            GoTo ExitSub
        End If
    End If

    Dim doc As HTMLDocument = ie.Document
    Dim keyIDelem As HTMLInputElement = doc.getElementsByName("grkeyid")(0)

    If keyIDelem Is Nothing Then
        ret = False
        GoTo ExitSub
    End If

    If Len(keyIDelem.value) > 0 Then
        ret = True
        GoTo ExitSub
    End If
ExitSub:
    Return ret

End Function